


Lost Souls

by anaknyte



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-05-19
Updated: 2013-05-22
Packaged: 2017-12-12 08:38:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 18,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/809570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anaknyte/pseuds/anaknyte
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The plan was simple. Collect the jewel shards, complete the jewel, defeat Naraku, and get rid of the jewel. But life never goes according to plan, and after an unexpected enemy seeks revenge, everything Kagome believed was put to the test. Will she be able to push through on her own, or will she receive unexpected help?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own Inuyasha. Trust me, if I did, it never would've been finished.
> 
> ~Ana

"Kagome, ' Inuyasha started, holding out a hand towards her. 'It's not what you think!"

Instead of taking hold of his hand like she wanted to, she balled her hands into a fist and glared at half naked woman lying on the ground.

"Oh, really? So you want to tell me that you weren't just about to mate her?"

The half demon opened and closed his mouth, unable to come up with something, ANYTHING, that would help him without hurting either female. I mean, it's not like he purposely HURT Kagome or anything, but he had to make sure the jewel shards could be found.

"Well, what do you expect when you're gonna be useless?"

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he mentally slapped his head. Out of all the things he could've said, why did he have to say she was worthless? And as her eyes narrowed and the temperature dropped, only one word went through his mind. Shit.

"Sit! Useless? USELESS?! Sit! God Inuyasha, I needed you by my side today! More than any other day in the past four years, but you weren't there. I always knew that you'd end up with Kikyo, you picked her, and I don't care anymore, but I thought you'd at least act like my friend! But no. My entire existence is about to change, and you're out here exchanging saliva! This time, Inuyasha, you made it painfully clear just how unimportant I am to you."

A tear raced down her face before she could stop it, and she knew she needed to leave before she completely broke down. Turning around, she squeezed her eyes shut, and hung her head.

"I'm for a walk. I'll be back before nightfall, and I'm taking my bow and arrows."

Just as she started to walk away, her arm was grabbed in a viselike grip, and she was forced around to face the half demon. The sight of the girl's anguished eyes made him let go, and had to rush to say what he wanted before she started walking away again.

"No you're not. You can't protect yourself, and once you start changing, we need to make sure you're here so we can protect everyone from you."

Without blinking, or showing any hint of emotion, she brought her spiritual powers to her hand and slapped him, making Inuyasha yelp and hold his cheek.

"No matter what happens to me, I'm still ME, and I won't hurt people! Maybe if you actually did your job and protected everyone from an actual enemy, like, I don't know, maybe NARAKU, we wouldn't be having this problem in the first place!"

His anger spiked and he took a threatening step closer to her.

"Don't try to pin this on ME, wench! If you hadn't shattered the damn jewel in the first place, he wouldn't be so damn powerful! Kikyo never would've been so stupid!"

"If she's so perfect, why don't you just have her take my place in the group, and let me go!"

"Fine! Go on your stupid walk, and when you come back, don't even THINK about begging me for help, cuz I won't! You can just go and get yourself killed for all I care!"

Instead of sitting him like he was expecting, the priestess just turned and walked off, leaving a stunned couple behind. Just before she was out of hearing range, she let the command for a certain half demon exit her mouth, and was slightly satisfied as the crash floated down to her. However, as the anger and hurt slowly left, thoughts on what was sure to befall her started coming to the surface, and memories of what happened to her on her 18th birthday came with them.


	2. Chapter One

Nine days ago

Kagome was sitting at the edge of a lake, just enjoying the breeze, happy to finally have a break. Today was her birthday, but with everything going on, she didn't really feel like pointing it out would help. Things had been tense in the group ever since Kikyo had joined. Inuyasha seemed happy enough, but for the rest, well, it was hard to enjoy being in the company of someone so blatantly…dead. Sure, she faked being alive, but when someone didn't eat, drink, sleep, BREATHE, it was really difficult to ignore the truth. She tried to make things comfortable for everyone, but tensions were rising regardless, and after a fight with some power hungry ferret demons, it all finally came to a head.

OoO

Three weeks ago

"What the hell Kagome! They were just pathetic ferret demons! What good is a priestess who can't even do her damn job? Why can't you be more like Kikyo?"

"Sit! You want to know why I can't be like Kikyo Inuyasha? It's because I'm Kagome! Jeeze, just because I'm her reincarnation, that doesn't mean I need to always be compared to her. Besides, I might not be perfect, but how can you expect me to be when you've never let me get proper training from Kaede?"

Finally wrestling himself out of the crater he'd been thrown in, he shook himself off and glared at Kagome.

"We don't have the time for that! We have to go and find the jewel shards so we can kill Naraku!"

Instead of continuing the fight, the priestess just let out a sigh and grabbed her first aid kit. Sure, she could've kept to her point, but she didn't see the point in it. Inuyasha was going to be Inuyasha no matter what, so in the end, it was just better to focus on those in the group who would actually listen to her. Besides, while he might think she was weak and pathetic, missing her shots, she wasn't. Her arrow might not have hit the demon who was about to attack her, but it DID hit the one who was sneaking up on Shippo, and regardless of the consequences, she refused to let her little kit get hurt. So, she had taken a blow from the demon, and was unable to get the dagger hidden at the small of her back. Kikyo had fired an arrow at the demon, and, unfortunately for her, the half demon had seen.

Her mouth opened to say something else, but she forcibly shut it again. Yes, she COULD point out that he was supposed to stay by her side and help. They were a duo after all, but he'd chosen to go off and 'protect' Kikyo. How you protect someone who couldn't be hurt was a mystery to the girl, but Inuyasha was the only one in the group who had failed to notice that the older woman never truly felt pain. Still, the dog thought he was the alpha in the group, and while that was wrong, she still had nothing to gain by challenging him.

Dutifully, she patched the group up, hiding the fact she was using her healing powers to speed along the process. It'd been like this for the last year or so. Sango, Miroku, and Shippo had taught her about her powers, swordmanship, self defense, basic survival skills, and the world of demons. It was fascinating, and she had never realized how much she was missing. However, they did it all in secret; Naraku, they had noticed, had really only focused on Inuyasha, and the times he knew about the others seemed to be whenever the dog would blab to someone. And so, even though she could handle herself in most situations she came across, she still had to act like a helpless little twit around her 'alpha', and it was driving her crazy.

She was pulled away from her cynical thoughts as she felt a strong aura approaching the camp. Looking around, she saw Inyasha and Kikyo had noticed too, though, why they were surprised was beyond her. What else could you expect when you intruded into someone else's lands? Unfortunately, the couple seemed unable to grasp this concept, and both drew their weapons aiming it at Sesshomaru as he finally walked into the clearing.

Kagome stepped forward, sending a quick look to Sango who immediately went to make both half demon and priestess put their weapons away. Bowing low and baring her throat to show her submission, the human girl waited for permission to rise. As the barest of touches alighted on the joint of neck and shoulder, she released a mental breath of relief. True, there was really no reason for him to use force, but he would've been well within his right to harm her, since members of her pack had raised arms against him.

"Lord Sesshomaru, it's an honor. Is there anything I or my pack might be able to do for you in return?"

A small quirk of an eyebrow was her only answer, and she almost sighed. No doubt waiting for Inuyasha to make an ass of himself so he can give punishment for trespassing to him, and not myself. Dogs. At least I know I was correctly submissive, or else it'd have been ME he was taking it out on.

Sure enough, the younger brother pushed past Sango and branded the Tetsusaiga at him.

"What the fuck are you doing here Sesshomaru?"

Not half a second later, the dog demon was pinning Inuyasha to a tree, sword discarded, and fingers around his neck glowing a dangerous green.

"You should learn to address your betters properly, half breed."

The pup scoffed, though the bravado he used didn't work quite as well with him struggling to get his brother's hand off his neck

"Fuck off bastard!"

Before either alpha could answer, they heard a bow being drawn, and a cold voice sounded out.

"Let him go demon, or be purified."

The demon scoffed, not deeming her worthy enough to even acknowledge, though the urge to place his dominance won out.

"Neither dead nor an abomination could you imagine the kind of power it would take to kill this Sesshomaru, let alone wield it. Do not think so highly of yourself, weakling."

Just as she was about to respond, Kagome reached her and tore the weapons from her hands.

"Stay out of this Kikyo, Inuyasha did this to himself and needs to learn how to deal with the consequences of such rash decisions. Besides, he could kill you in less time than it would take you blink an eye. Don't fool yourself, you're only alive because you're not important enough for him to kill."

Kikyo and Inuyasha glared at her, but it was the Lord who addressed her, a flicker of respect held in his eyes for a brief moment, though none in the group could read him well enough to know.

"Why do you trespass on this Sesshomaru's lands?"

Kagome lowered her head, again baring her throat, and walked up to him slowly, purposefully making sure he had enough time between each step to let a warning be voiced. Finally, she reached his side and slowly rose, licking under his chin to ask forgiveness. After all, one of the biggest lessons she had been taught was how demons, no matter the race, listened to actions first, and words second. If she had asked forgiveness, but stayed her ground, it would've come across as a challenge, instead of an apology. Time passed, and she was grateful for being taught that, in things involving demons, patience was key. An alpha had to press his dominance whenever he could, and so, knowing it was either wait or be hurt, she pushed her impatience away, and finally spoke after feeling his tongue travel across her jugular. Unfortunately, she also had to push away the sudden tingle that traveled down her spine.

"I apologize for that, Lord Sesshomaru, we should have asked your permission. However, we don't have enough money for a carrier, and thought it would be pointless in the end anyways, since, so my knowledge, you spend most of your time patrolling your lands. Though I realize I know nothing of you, my Lord."

"You are correct."

"We are here on rumors of a jewel shard little more than half a days journey north-west of here, and since it's our responsibility to rejoin the Sacred Jewel, we had to come, whether the rumors be true or false. If you want us to leave, we will, of course, but I fear that if we don't retrieve the jewel, should the rumor be right, then Naraku will come and get it for himself. And he isn't one to care about the wishes of such a great Lord."

She prayed he'd let them continue, she could feel the shard, even this far away, and knew the rumors had been correct. Unfortunately, she couldn't let that little fact be known, so if he said they had to leave, they'd have no choice but to, since Kikyo certainly couldn't feel the jewel this far off. Suddenly though, the Lord released his hold in Inuyasha, and he dropped to the floor with a thud.

"Hn. You have two days." And then he was gone.

Immediately, Inuyasha jumped up and got in Kagome's face, anger pouring off him in waves.

"What the fuck was that all about? Why didn't you let Kikyo help me? You just stood there like a stupid bitch, trying to please that icy bastard!"

"Sit! Ugh, you know what? Sit! Are you really that stupid? Kikyo wouldn't have been able to even scratch him, let alone make him let go of you! All she would've done is piss him off and possibly gotten the both of you killed. AND lost us a jewel shard. Whether you like it or not, we can only be on his lands with his permission, and you won't get it by waving your stupid sword around and cursing at him!"

Crossing her arms, Kagome waited for him to get out of the crater, not expecting the question that came from her incarnation.

"How do you explain your actions with Inuyasha's brother? You couldn't have known what you were doing, you haven't been taught in the ways of demons."

The suspicion was so strong the girl could almost taste it, but didn't let it get to her. Shippo already knew the truth, and Inuyasha's senses weren't strong enough to smell a lie.

"I'm not stupid you know. Just because I might not have been taught what to do or why to do it, doesn't mean I can figure out a few things by watching what goes on around me. Besides, Shippo's a demon, and I figured a lot of it out from him."

Kagome hid the smirk that popped up by smiling at her kit. And I didn't even lie.

The half dog finally made it out, and shook himself, true to nature. Though, neither brother had gotten the happy nature that also came from dogs, so she wasn't at all surprised when he glared at her, and crossed his arms in his sleeves.

"Whatever. Just hurry up and make dinner wench, we have an early start tomorrow, and I won't have you slowing us down just because you want some beauty sleep."

As he walked off to join Kikyo, the tension finally left the rest of the little pack. Inuyasha wasn't stupid, per se, but he just had no idea that the only reason he was able to act like alpha so often was because Kagome allowed it. They all knew, though, that should the day come where they had to choose between the two of them, they were all going to be having a female alpha. The only thing never spoken about was the fear they had that that time was coming. Soon.

OoO

Nine days ago

The young priestess opened her eyes and sighed. They'd found the shard, though it wasn't a demon, but a human who had it, and for all humans say demons are horrible creatures, they hadn't seen one besides Naraku to cause such devastation. When they got to the village, there were human body parts everywhere; blood had turned the earth red, and that was only when you managed to find a piece of it beneath all the gore. Having no other option, they had had to walk on all of it to get to the only remaining house. It wasn't any better there; the bodies of children and women were everywhere, better than those outside, but not by much. Mutilated, disfigured, violated; there were bodies so badly ruined that the only way they could tell it was a woman was because they saw dried semen. Then again, since it was in the heart, they weren't so sure.

Finally, they reached the monster responsible, and had to fight not to throw up. This sick bastard had had the eyeballs from every single person in the village he'd killed tied together into a cape that hung from his neck. The only thing keeping him from being bare to the world was an even more gruesome skirt made from men's genitals, and women's breasts and nether regions. The whole thing was sown together by ropes of hair.

Never, in the whole last three years, had Kagome seen something so horrible, and she was never more happy than the moment in the battle when she managed to get the killing blow. They retrieved the shard, and searched for survivors. In the very back of the house, there was a woman, but when they tried to get near her, she went suicidal and took Miroku's staff from him, using it to stab herself in the stomach and bled to death. Unfortunately, it was silently agreed that that was for the best. Not only had she most likely seen what had happened to the rest of the village, but she had had her lips and parts of her cheeks cut off in a macabre smile, and what looked to be the toes of other victims sewn onto her, again with hair.

It all left a very bad taste in the back of all their throats, and they would never be able to forget the smell of roasting flesh; the only choice they were left with was to burn the entire village. The trip back to Kaede's was quiet and uneventful, and, though they couldn't let it stop them from their duties, they spent five days there, just trying to imprint the images of normal village living in their minds. Once Kagome got back from the future, they left once more, this time to the north-east, and had managed to get back into the normal pattern the group had picked up. However, unbeknownst to the young girl, both Inuyasha and Kikyo had noticed how easily she had handled the sword she'd managed to take from the village man, and figured out -well, Kikyo found out, and Inuyasha believed her- that there was something going on with Kagome, something everyone knew but them.

Thus, here she was, though, now that she thought about it, she couldn't remember how she got here. The others weren't here, so it couldn't be their camp, but then where were her weapons? She used to be dumb enough to leave them when she went off by herself, but she'd gotten over that ages ago. Also, the priestess remembered that the group had been traveling on mountainous terrain for the last day and a half, so this flat, grassy field with a lake was unlikely to be near them. What the hell was going on? Nothing that was going on made sense!

Slowly, she started seeing cracks appear around her, in the sky, the grass, the trees, like she'd just thrown a rock at a window.

"That, you little bitch, is almost exactly what you did."

She jumped up, scared from the voice that apparently came from nowhere, for no matter where she looked, no one was there.

"Of course I'm not there, this isn't reality. This, my dear, is your very own dreamscape, I have simply invited myself in, and closed the exit door. So go ahead, scream, shout, cry, do whatever you want, your body won't respond, and no one can save you. You aren't going anywhere until I want you to."

Her whole body was shaking, the knowledge this woman was right, for how else could everything be explained, scared her, but she pushed it back, and asked the only question that mattered.

"What do you want of me?"

There was a pause, as if the question wasn't expected, and when the voice spoke again, it was annoyed.

"You don't seem quite as pathetic as you've been made out to be.' A pause. 'Very well. I am the sister to Tsubaki, the dark priestess you murdered. You see, she was very dear to me, and when I learned of her death, I knew that I had to have my revenge. But what to do? Though pathetically weak, you seemed impervious to attempts to kill you, and even when one or two made it through, you just purified them with your powers. So, I couldn't use a human, nor a demon, and I most certainly couldn't try myself lest I be killed. There seemed to be nothing I could do, but then one day I found the answer in one of my sister's books.' A chuckle. 'I just had to make sure you weren't a priestess anymore. After all, I could get assassins close to you, I just couldn't get them past your powers. Unfortunately for me, in order to do it, I'll have to sacrifice myself, but I have my plans laid out. Once you're changed, you'll die. I have no doubt."

Dark, blinding, terrific fear. No! NO! This can't be happening, not now, not when we're getting so CLOSE to finishing the jewel! She didn't want to know any more, but she had to. This wasn't something she could just close her eyes to and pretend it didn't exist. Somehow, her mind formed the question, and forced it out passed a throat that no longer worked.

"What are you going to change me in to?"

The fear that was held in each word made the voice laugh, obviously pleased with the reaction.

"Well, as much as I would just LOVE to turn you into a weak human, since you were born with so much power, you have to keep that power. So, I have no choice but turn you into a demon. Why the hell a little whore like you has so much power is beyond me, but I'm unable to change you into anything other than a full demon. Then again, I'm lucky that you're so untrained, or else you would have been able to find me and kill me by now. In any case, the only other decision to make was what kind of demon to turn you into. Then it hit me. What has that pathetic half breed wanted more than anything his whole existence?"

A pause, and Kagome prayed will all her might. Please, please, anything but that, whatever it is, don't let it be…

"A full dog demon!"

Any vestiges of hope, of optimism disappeared.

"Oh, how LOVELY would it be to want something with all your soul, and know it'll never happen, only to find out that some pathetic nobody girl is going to get what you've always desired? And the best part is that he won't even see it coming. The very night he changes into a human, you'll take your demon form, I thought it'd be a nice bond for you both. Not to mention you are very likely to lose control, if not your mind, and kill them all. That, sweet dear, is my ultimate revenge, to have you turn into a mindless demon and kill every single person you care about, with your half demon lover only able to watch as everything happens. Ta ta dear, I do so look forward to the show."

The dreamscape shattered once the voice left, though Kagome never noticed. All she could see in her mind was the vision that woman had painted for her. Everyone…dead…by me…

She felt a scream build up in her, and she let it loose, and even though she finally woke up, she couldn't stop screaming. Even when every crowded around her to try and wake her up, or finally resorted to slapping her in hopes of restoring a semblance of reality, or when a bucket of water was poured on her, nothing stopped it, stopped her. It was only when her throat was raw and she could no longer form any sound that the screaming stopped. However, instead of getting any answers from her, they had to wait, sleepless, while she fell into an exhausted sleep.

None of them knew what had happened, but they all knew they'd never forget the sound of her screaming, not if they had five hundred years. Any sleep they might have gotten was long gone, Kagome having taken away any option of falling back to sleep, and they just waiting by the fire, trying to think of anything but her screams, waiting for the light of day so they could head back to Kaede's village. They all thought the same thing.

What in the hell happened?


	3. Chapter Two

Four days ago

Everything was silent, unbearably so, but no one could force themselves to make a sound. They had left that day as soon as the sun rose, regardless of Kagome still being asleep, but it still took them three days to get back, and even then, they had to wait another two days, not because she was still asleep, but because her throat was so abused, if she talked, it would rip, and she'd start coughing blood. Luckily, with her powers and Kaede's treatment, she was able to tell them what happened that night. And while they got their questions answered, they wish they'd never known. However, they were all currently waiting to see how Inuyasha reacted to it, so far all he'd done is freeze up and use his bangs to cover his eyes.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the silence was broken, but not in the way any of them had hoped.

"How could you?" Inuyasha was standing in front of Kagome making it easy for him to glare at her with hate filled eyes.

"What?" Kagome said, her own anger starting to well up, masking the pain that came with it. "You think I did this on purpose? Do you honestly think that I wanted to become a demon? Can you imagine the kind of pain that I'll have to endure if I live?"

"Why would I care? I thought you were my friend, but I guess you're not. You probably went and found that bastard half brother of mine and planned all of this together so that you could torture me."

The rest of them looked on with surprise, wondering how he could ever think the soon to be demon would ever do that to him. All, that is, except Kikyo, who had a look of suspicion in her eyes. Neither member of the arguing pair saw any of this, though, and not even Inuyasha saw her hand swing out and strike him across the face, followed by a shrill command.

"Sit! Really Inuyasha? Is your opinion of me so low that you would believe I'd do this to you? You're my best friend! I used to LOVE you for crying out loud. When would I even have had the time to go off on a secret rendezvous with Sesshomaru? Not only that, but why would I WANT to? It's only very recently that he's finally stopped trying to kill us all, the only thing I'm doing with him is trying to make sure it stays that way."

She was getting beyond mad now, and along with that anger was pain. After everything she'd done for him, the years of friendship, the countless times she'd nursed him back to health, he was going to forget it all and accuse her of something this stupid? Still, there WAS pain, and it was enough to temper the anger, and let her calm down. She let out a long sigh and when she spoke again, it was much lower.

"Don't you think that I would've just gone home and sealed the well if I hated you that much? I'm on the same team as you, Inuyasha. I've fought Naraku, I've seen his distruction, hell, I've almost gotten killed by him. The only thing I want is for all of it to stop, and the only way that's going to happen is if we collect the shards and kill him. How can I do that as anything other than a priestess? If I had been given a choice, I would've stayed exactly the way I am, but I wasn't. Don't you see? I DON'T WANT THIS!"

Utter desperation and fear were so clear in her voice, that even Inuyasha, who was trying to only see the bad in her, heard it. His ears fell back to lay flat on his head, and he immediately regretted what he said. Finally letting the anger fade, he actually allowed his brain to do it's job, and thought back on all the times she was happy to be human, perfectly fine and content with dying when she was 90. All the times she loved him for just being him, and all the times she had that same love for everyone she came across. No, I'm so stupid, of course she wouldn't want this, the hell was I thinking?

A small growl escaped his throat, and he gruffly pulled her to him for a quick hug.

"Oi, quit crying. I… Look, I… I'm sorry, alright? I guess all the stuff from the last few weeks has been getting to me. Besides, Shippo calls me stupid all the time, so you should be used to it by now. I mean, it was a lot to take in, but I got it now, and it's alright, we'll figure this shit out, okay? So, jeeze, stop being stupid and just sit me already."

Kagome would never admit it, but she was really happy. Yeah, he was a jerk, and stupid, and insensitive, but he was also her best friend, and one that she loved, even if she wasn't in love with him. Wiping the treacherous tears away, she stepped back and let a small smirk appear.

"Alright. Sit. And stop calling me stupid already!"

The half demon just muttered to himself, all the while a small smile on his mouth. Everything was back to normal, or at least as normal as it was going to get. Kagome sat near the fire with everyone else, and waited for Inuyasha to get up and pick a spot in the hut before voicing the rest of her thoughts.

"Alright, so, this is going to change a few things, but I think we can make it work. After all, Inu can help me with all the dog things, and Shippo can help me with anything else. I might not have my purifying or healing powers anymore, but I'll be stronger, faster, and deadlier. Besides, Kikyo has always been better than me, so we're not really all that hurt by this. We can still find and collect jewel shards with her, and finish the battle with Naraku. We'll probably be able to travel faster, and extra protection for the group couldn't hurt."

She looked around the hut and looked at everyone. Not that she believed her words, but as she was the support on the faces of the people who had become her second family, she couldn't help but start feeling a bit confident. You know, maybe it can work.

Nodding happily to herself, the young girl stood and stretched, letting out a little yawn, and heading for the door.

"Well, since I only have four days left until the new moon, I'm going home. I'll be gone for three days, but I'll most likely bring a bunch of stuff with me before I come back. So don't be surprised if I come and grab you to help, Inu!"

With that, she left, Inuyasha didn't even argue with her about it this time.

OoO

One day ago

"Oi! What the hell wench! How much shit could you possibly be needing me to bring?"

The complaining dog on heard a tinkling laugh in response, and he snorted. Women.

"Oh, Yasha, come on, I won't be back to this time for another five hundred years. You can't possibly expect one backpack's worth of items to be enough! Besides, you shouldn't complain, three of those are filled with only ramen, just for you!"

The place she had indicated was a large pile of backpacks, stuffed to the brim with as much as she could get with the money her mom had saved for her college tuition. She had explained everything to her family, and had spent the better part of a day crying and consoling each other. But, not one for depression, her mom had called in for Sota, and had taken the family out for as many happy memories as she could fit into the time they had left. It was nice, and the priestess was glad she had her mother, because without her, she wouldn't know what to do.

While Inuyasha started with the trips, she went back inside and said goodbye to her family one last time. For Sota, there was teasing, scolding, and a promise to bring back a sword used by a real knight. For Gramps, she listened about how to properly exercise a demon, advice on places to go at certain times, and a heartfelt hug. With her mom, there were no tears, both women refusing to be anything but strong. Mother and daughter talked about what kind of man was acceptable, promises for her to take care of herself, and a promise for the young woman to, in no uncertain terms, NOT interfere with any of their destines, including her father's.

"If he was meant to be alive, he would be. Having the knowledge of what's going to happen is a very serious responsibility, and you have to make sure you don't change anything that's meant to happen. Understand?"

When she shook her head, her mother gathered her into her arms, and just held her for a few moments before letting go and looking at her one last time. The outfit she was wearing was one they made sure to get multiples of; pants that looked like a skirt, slightly billowy and with pockets, and a shirt that was nicely fitted and allowed for decent storage of her daggers. Together, the outfit looked remarkably like a kimono, and would pass for decent in the past, while having the comfort and convenience of the future.

Inuyasha came in, saying he was done, but that the group had thought it best for her to stay and have dinner one last time with her family. Afterwards, she realized that they'd been right, and were grateful for the last memory, even if she'd promised to come find them in five hundred years. On her walk back to the well, she looked around on last time, and was grateful for every memory she'd been able to have there. Finally, she entered the well house, and with the smallest of hesitancies, jumped through.

Once on the other side, she climbed out and just stood there, looking at the well. Sealing it was harder than she thought it would be. Cutting off any hope of ever being able to use it, of having Inuyasha go through for her so she could continuously communicate with them, but it had to be done. She couldn't leave the safety of her family to someone else, even if it was her incarnation, as well as give herself the temptation of knowing whether or not she actually lived that long. No. The sooner she sealed it, the sooner she'd be able to go to her family five centuries from now. So, with tears streaming down her face, and the sun setting at her back, she finally sealed the well and walked away.


	4. Chapter Three

Present

She huffed and let off a pitiful growl. The anger from earlier was gone, but she still didn't like thinking about it. Okay, so, yeah, she had already pretty much guessed he was gonna do… well, IT, but today of all days? It just wasn't right, but, then again, Inuyasha never was one for good timing. The young girl let out a sigh and sat down, exhausted from running for so long. Well, so what if running away from it had looked pathetic, she didn't have to care anymore. And when the anger and terror of the day kept her running for hours, well, it's not like she had KNOWN her stamina had gotten so good. Honestly, she really had no idea where she was, all she knew was that she was sore, tired, and laying on really… soft… grass

Pain. It was severe, all consuming, and there was so escaping it, especially now that she was awake. An agonized scream left her as her body contracted spasms she couldn't fight. Fire. She was on fire, she had to be, how else could she feel this pain. Another scream was ripped from her, and suddenly she was choking. On what? There's no way she was drowning, the fire would've stopped. It didn't. So difficult to do anything! Finally though, FINALLY she got her head to open, and had to waste precious second forcing her eyes to open, and there it was. Blood. Her blood. Everywhere. How?

No time though, another spasm. She could feel it though, what was happening, and she didn't want to. Dear GOD she didn't want to feel it. Her muscles, ripping, realigning, changing shape, new ones being added. Bones, her BONES, breaking, twisting, reforming, shifting. Why couldn't they just stay the same?! The teeth too, the teeth, nails, even her hair, HER FUCKING HAIR hurt.

It hurts! IT HURTS! Stop it! Stop hurting, please, someone MAKE IT STOP!

Kill them. They hurt us, so kill them! If they live, we hurt, but if they die, pain stops!

Who? Who are you?

I am you. You are me. We are one.

You're…Me? But, how? Where did you come from?

Yes. You are thought and logic and all things of mind, creature of words. I am destruction, desire, survival, protector, creature of instinct. You are dog, but not, as I am demon, but not. You can call me beast.

Beast. Are you going to try to take over? I have heard from others that that is what you try do to.

Sometimes, when I believe to know what is better, but not now, it will only harm us more.

Thank you.

All she heard in response was a snort, and then silence. Unfortunately, without the conversation to take her mind off the pain, she started feeling it again. Only… it wasn't so bad anymore. It was subsiding, finally finishing up, and it was then she realized her… beast, had distracted her at the worst of it, helping her to get through it.

Helping US get through it.

She corrected herself, and heard a growl of approval in response. A smile played at her lips, liking the warmth she felt in her chest, and the feeling of strength that was starting to flow through her body. Slowly, carefully, she started testing her body; fingers, toes, then up and up, each joint one at a time, and was happy when she found she could move around without it hurting.

Well, that was unexpected. I thought for sure I would have to stay here until someone found me.

We heal fast, our body is able to deal with much worse than this.

Still though, shouldn't I…we have needed to stay here longer than this.

The amusement from her beast ran through her, and she knew she wouldn't mind this as much as she had originally thought.

Much more time has passed than you think. The sun will be rising in a couple hours.

That soon?

She got up, needing to use a tree for support, and then saw her hand.

What on Earth…?

Her hands had been small before, but now they were slender, elegant, free from all the scars she had gotten over the years.

And completely deadly.

The claws that tipped them were sharp, sharper than the blades she had, and she had already gouged deep holes in the tree with them. She looked at the rest of herself, well, what she could see anyways, and was startled by the changes. Her entire figure was smaller, but taller and more elegant looking, with the deadly undertone. Claws on hands and feet, fangs in her mouth, and who knew how much strength in her? There was another thing though, on her arms and legs, as far as she could see without stripping, there were two stripes of gold, not to mention in her hair too.

I always figured I'd get silver or grey in my hair, but I never thought I'd get gold!

Soft laughter came tinkling out, and she was surprised how pleasant it sounded.

Have I always sounded like that, or did my voice change too?

There was really no way for her to know, so instead, so focused on going back to get help figuring her questions out.

And came face to chest with the Lord of the west. For a stunned second, all she could do was look at him, but when her beast growled at her, she realized she had almost issued a challenge, and quickly bared her throat, closing her eyes as well. A delightful tingle ran down her spine when his tongue dragged across the juncture between neck and shoulder, and she realized many, MANY more nerve endings had been added.

"Who are you?"

She gave him a puzzled look, but when her beast purred from within with pleasure, she quickly remembered how many changes had occurred.

Jeeze girl! He licks your neck, and all of a sudden you can't remember the most agonizing night of your life? Get it together!

"I apologize for confusing you, Lord Sesshomaru, I am Kagome, the priestess who travels with your brother. Or at least I WAS the priestess who did. I'm afraid I've been forced to undergo a rather, painful transformation."

He gave her a critical look, not quite knowing if she was telling the truth, and not being able to tell with the scent of blood covering all else. She certainly tasted similar though, and she had enough enemies to do this to her. The Lord supposed it made some sense, take away her powers and finally make her weak enough to kill.

"What are you doing this close to my lands?"

A blush appeared on her checks, and instead of detracting from her looks, it added to them.

"I walked in on Inuyasha trying to mate my incarnation, and some rather heated words were exchanged. In the end, I had to run off the anger, and ended up here. When I sat to rest for a moment, I suppose I fell asleep, and woke once the transformation started happening. If I have caused my Lord any inconvenience, I truly apologize."

The slight possessiveness she used was caught by the girl's beast and the Lord, but not the girl herself. Instead, she was focused on licking the underside of his jaw, and was amazed at the flavors that came to her tongue.

He tastes like moonbeams and frost.

"You taste so good."

The moment the words were out of her mouth, she blushed ten different shades, and tried to ask for forgiveness, only to have his flavor explode in her mouth once again. She had to lower herself and bare her throat, but she whimpered at the loss of such a delectable taste. Even her beast was whimpering for more.

When his tongue descended again, he took his time tasting her. True, he already had, but he had been more focused on a possible threat to his lands, than the taste of some bitch. But this time he paid attention, and was pleasantly surprised when her taste of honey and darkness entered his mouth, and though he was loath to admit it, even to himself, he was didn't quite feel like stopping when he had to. However, he was a Lord, and conducted himself that way, even though the bitch's scent of arousal was begging for him to continue.

"You are to return to your pack at once."

Kagome had to shake off the daze that had started to fall over her, and bow her head, knowing an order when she heard one, and her alpha was not one to be disobeyed. She paused for a second what that thought crossed her mind, not having quite realized before that she thought of Sesshomaru as her alpha, before heading off at a trot, finally paying enough attention to hear when he himself left.

Now that she focused on it, she marveled at her new senses. The things she could hear, smell, taste, see, everything was brighter, louder, there were colors she could see now that she'd had no idea existed, scents she could decipher, but not name, tastes that could only be experienced. Okay, the new demoness new that it wouldn't always be rainbows and glitter –moonbeams and blood her beast supplied- but right now she was happy about her new gifts.

That lasted up until she smelled the village, and very quick realized why demons mostly live with other demons.

How could I ever have put poor Shippo and Kilala through this? Don't humans have any self respect?

At that last part, she came up short.

When did I stop being human?

When you accepted me.

And so now I'm not allowed to think of myself as a human?

You can think of yourself however you like. However WE are not human. WE are demon. Human's are prey, they are weaker than us, but we do not have grudges against them. Except perhaps their uncleanliness.

I can completely agree with you there.

Before, she would have argued, but she realized what her beast was trying to say. There's always a stronger and weaker opponent, and between humans and demons, humans are weaker. In species, weaker species always become prey, that is just how things are, it has nothing to do with them being human or inferior, just with the fact that they are. How this concept had escaped her all these years was beyond her, but she was glad she finally understood.

I think I might be able to do this.

We will.


	5. Chapter Four

"So you're telling us, Lady Kagome, that Lord Sesshomaru just let you walk away?"

The young demon had come back to the village just as the sun came up, and found herself at the business end of the Tetsuiga.

I wonder how I never noticed how intimidating that thing could be?

It had taken the better part of the morning –and a gazzilion sits- before the half demon finally calmed down and believed her, much to her consternation. Not that she blamed him, since he had still been under the control of human emotions, but it shouldn't have taken QUITE so long for him to realize the truth. In the end, he had gone back into Kaede's hut, but not before he gave a derisive sniff and told Kagome how much she stunk. The floor was quick to greet their friend, and after huffing, the young female took her bathing supplies and left to freshen up.

The others were waiting for her when she came back, and barely managed to let her get settled before asking all the questions they had. Which lead to where she was now, with an unbelieving pack, and a suspicious priestess. She had to give it to the demons who hung out with her on a daily basis; if her beast was out, the hackles would've been raised, and snout growling threateningly at Kikyo. Before, Kagome had thought that power was just power, even though she could feel the differences between them. However, with the new awareness the change had brought, she could feel the potency of the older woman's powers, and how it was geared toward eradicating her beast and herself.

Mentally shaking her head, she looked up at the monk.

"Yeah. I mean, it's not like he needed me for anything anyways, and I'm sure he realized I would've been more trouble than anything. I'm just kinda surprised that he showed up. I know he doesn't let a threat into his lands, but I thought he was deep into his lands."

She was about to continue when she noticed the look on Miroku's face. It was the look he got when he had a puzzle he couldn't exactly fit together. Luckily she didn't have to wait long for him to reveal his thoughts.

"It has just occurred to me why I kept thinking something was wrong about the village."

Inuyasha snorted and gave the human a mean glare. "You mean besides the fact that the whole place was covered in human parts?"

Sighing, he leaned back and tried to bring calm and patience to his self. A monk though he may be, the half demon really tried his limits sometimes. "Yes, Inuyasha, besides that. Did any of you wonder why Lord Sesshomaru hadn't dealt with it himself? He was in the area, after all, and it would have been impossible for him not to smell what happened." At this he looked up and made eye contact with everyone in the room. "Why would the Lord allow such massacre allow on his lands when he disallowed even the idea of it everywhere else?"

Silence was the only thing that met his question, and they all wondered how they'd missed it. Then, uneasily, Lady Kaede moved to look at Miroku.

"Do ye think it possible the village was meant for the death day?"

It made sense, after all, why defend people from being killed when they were to die anyways? After thinking about it for a few moments, he shook his head.

"Yes, I do believe that is the answer. Lord Sesshomaru wouldn't save the villagers from being massacred if he planned on killing them in the end anyhow. Plus, if we were there to take care of the last prisoner, than he would have ample reason to stay away, and not be forced to kill a lowly human."

Kagome had to admit, it did solve the problem, but her mind was having a problem accepting such barbarianism. A few lessons came to mind from her history class that backed up the normalcy of such a thing during this time, but that didn't mean she had to like it. The rest of the day, while getting ready to track another jewel shard rumor, she had a bad taste in the back of her throat.

Is Sesshomaru this cruel because it's his nature, or because he has to make people believe it is?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the short chapter, but I had a really bad case of writer's block. Hopefully this appeases you, and I'll try harder next time!
> 
> ~Ana


	6. Chapter Five

You know, it amazed Kagome sometimes, how she could know so much, and yet know almost nothing at all. She knew the human anatomy almost intimately, a brief curiosity with massage having given her the knowledge. Yet, here she was, with next to no idea what all the new muscle alignments and groups were for. Sure, he had an idea, but it bothered her to some extent that she didn't know for sure. For example, there were two or three more muscles in her arms alone, mainly her brachium (or upper arm as Inuyasha would constantly force her to clarify), and she guessed they were for better agility, possibly movement on all fours, but there was no way for her to know for sure.

That was another problem she was having of late; she had had no troubles navigating around right after the transformation, but it seemed the farther the memory of it got, the more difficult it was for her to stay upright. The only thing she could think of was that her center of gravity had changed, and while the changes hadn't been drastic, it was enough to feel as if she were in another's body. Decidedly, the feeling was unwelcome, disconcerting even, and it left her feeling even more vulnerable than when she had first come to Feudal Japan.

She found herself becoming more and more frustrated as the days passed; not only was she no better than a pup (her beast was integrating more and more into her thoughts, and she couldn't decide if she liked it or not), but she was as weak as a human now. Perhaps not in strength, but she had assumed she'd be retaining some sort of power in her new form, only to find she couldn't access anything. Trying to talk with her beast wasn't helping, either; she'd just snicker at her and tell her all the answers she sought were right beneath the surface, all she had to do was accept her instincts. This confused her to no end because she couldn't figure out if the bitch (again, another of the beast's influences) meant it the way she said it, as in accept herself, or if she meant accept being a demoness and everything that came with it.

Either way, it wasn't an easy request; try as she might, all the negative comments Inuyasha had made about her over the years had colored her self perception to an almost depressing degree. Add to that her newfound issues with reconciling her human way of thinking and morals with those of demons, and there wasn't much accepting going on at the moment. Sure, she'd tried faking it, acting like she was having some major breakthrough, but if there was one thing she had learned, it was that you could never lie to yourself. Or at least she couldn't.

All she wanted to do was go home and curl up with her mom, have her say all the things she needed so desperately to hear, and help her get over the feeling of being a monster. No, it wasn't like her beast wanted to go out and kill everything, but it wasn't out of care for life, just having no reason to do so. Kagome had spent her entire life holding life in very high regard, seeing every living creature as a miracle and something to be cherished. It was very difficult on the poor girl to suddenly be thrown into a thought process that simply looked at all living things as a means to an end. There wasn't any importance, care, or wonderment, merely a recognition that they were there in case their deaths were needed to sustain her. Sure, she had come to realize it wasn't a horrible way of thinking, it was the way things were, but it wasn't until she changed that she realized just how naive she had been.

And, as if she needed anything else to deal with, her body couldn't decide how it wanted to look. At first, she had had two gold stripes on various parts of her anatomy, they had switched to black, and then were gone. Her eyes, which she had finally been able to see after getting ahold of her mirror, had changed even more drastically. Amber, black, blue, red, green, and finally seeming to have settled on a combination of deep chocolate amber, with specks of her old sapphire blue. What perhaps pleased her the most, was the transformation of her hair, now black roots, blue-silver body, and golden tips. It suited her quite well, and was utterly beautiful. The only constants had been her now superior senses and strength, which made it much easier for her to start to control it, though it was slow going as her mind was still stubbornly human, and refused to remember she wasn't.

Still, she tried to put on a happy face for her friends, and tried to ease their minds, but it was getting increasingly more difficult. She knew they didn't mean to hurt her, but catching the glances of slight fear they thought they hid hurt. Yeah, she was different, but she was still Kagome, and to receive fear when all she wanted was their support cut deeply. They were pack after all, family in the human sense, and while she understood the why's and how's of their feelings, it didn't help to ease the feeling of betrayal from her heart. But she fought on anyhow, knowing that sometimes it just took proving fears wrong to dispel them.

Not having to sleep as much helped, as she could focus more of her time and attention on relearning to walk, to trust her body, and keep her strength in check so as not to hurt those she cared for. Inuyasha didn't make it easy on her though, his constant degrading words and condescending attitude, as well as his patience was wearing on them all, and only made it harder for her to master her new body. Finally, after one particularly surly comment, she decided it was enough.

"Sit! You think you're so much better than I am, Inuyasha? I'd like to see you try to master being a completely different species in only a few days!" Ignoring his mumbled yells from the ground, she continued in on him, yanking his head back in her anger to glare heatedly into his eyes. "You bitch and moan every time you change into a human, and all you have to do is sit around and have the rest of us do everything for you! Unlike you, I don't even have the luxury of having the same body! Ugh, you disgust me." Throwing his head back down, she turned her back on him, fighting off the urge to truly show the insolent mutt who was alpha. "I'm ridiculously strong, my senses are driving me crazy, I don't know if I even have powers anymore, I have to try and deal with a whole new way of thinking and my body has decided to go on a bi-polar trip to hell. I don't need or want to deal with your idiocy any longer, especially not when I have to look into my own pack's eyes and see fear reflected within." The flinches from the others was expected and easily ignored.

Instead of letting things go, or perhaps focusing on the sadness and hurt the girl was easily showing, he became obtuse as usual, and focused only on the insults to him. "Who in the hell said this was your pack wench? This isn't the first time you said it either! Don't think that just cuz you got some nifty new skills, and can subdue me that you're alpha of my pack, cuz you ain't! I'll treat the bitches in my pack however I want, and if you don't like that you can leave! We don't need some pathetic would-be demoness anyways! Why don't you just go find your prince Sesshomaru and run off to him like the good little bitch you are?"

Never, in all her life, had she wanted to harm someone so much before. That he would even think those things was betrayal enough, but to say them to her? He'd gone too far. In less time than it took the others to blink, Kagome had the half breed pinned to a tree, claws at his throat, and a ferocious growl pouring from her lips.

"You think humiliate me half breed? To take what's mine? You presume too much you pathetic whelp." Slowly, her hands started to tighten around his neck, relishing the panic and fear that started to course through him, even as a voice in the back of her mind started yelling that this wasn't her, and she needed to stop hurting him. Her hand stopped, the internal battle waging war inside her, beast and ex-human, and all of a sudden she threw Inuyasha one way and herself another. Panting for breath, she started heaving and shaking at the horrible vision that had been planted in her brain of Inuyasha dead at her hands, his blood in her mouth, down her throat, in her stomach. And with that all the contents in her stomach came up.

It was several minutes before she was able to look up, and several more before she was able to look anyone in the eyes. The shame was clear to all who looked, but their fear held them back from coming to her, their alpha, their Kagome. This young woman who came from the future and gave them all a reason to live, and now made them all want to flee. Before she could talk, however, she felt another presence approach, and gave a sigh of bone deep weariness, not wanting to deal with anything more. She was surprised, however, when she heard the bow and arrow of the new arrival being drawn, and a quick glace confirmed that it was pointed in her direction.

"What do you want Kikyo?"

Said priestess raised a brow mockingly and waited for Inuyasha to step beside her, which he did like the dog he was. "You harm your own friend, and ask why I draw my bow? I am a priestess, and as such, my duty is to protect people from monsters like you. There was never a doubt in my mind that you would lose your mind to the demon blood. Now I get to- ungh!" Out of nowhere, the incarnation grunted in pain and was driven to her knees by some unknown source of pain. At once, the half breed was at her side, helping her to stand again, searching with all his senses for the cause of the pain, and when he couldn't find any, he turned to the most likely assailant.

"What the fuck did you do to her bitch?!" The red seeping into his eyes was a testament to how enraged he was, but Kikyo reached out and calmed him before he could do anything too rash. No, she still had things she needed the pitiful dog to do, and she couldn't use him if he was dead.

"No Inuyasha. Although she would most likely gain much pleasure from my suffering, she isn't doing it. Intentionally. It seems the curse is trying to turn even the part residing in me into a demon, but I am strong enough to fight it off. Unfortunately, it has taken more energy than I predicted to do so, and has left me rather weak." She was smirking on the inside. Yes, the mutt would eat that up, and turn on her reincarnation that much more.

"So she's killing you?!" He tried advancing upon the young girl again, and once again was stopped by his love. Shaking her head, she moved in front of him, the moment of pain gone, and leveled her bow at the new demoness.

"You have no idea how to control your tainted powers, and are a danger to everyone because of it. Since you have no ties to any demons here who could train you properly, it is now my responsibility to eradicate you completely. The Jewel doesn't need another monster after it, and neither do I." Just then, she released her bow, and as Kagome readied herself to face the onslaught, a loud feminine command was heard, and the arrow was knocked off course and broken by the weapon known as hiraikotsu, undoubtedly saving her life.

"Kikyo, you leave her alone! You have no right to kill Kagome, she can find training!" Her statement was met with condescending looks from the couple, but having her sister's life on the line, and the man she loved at her back gave her the strength to stand firm.

"Oh? And where do you propose she go to get this so called help? Who would be willing to take in a monster?" The undead priestess had half turned already, feeling confident that it had been nothing more than a bluff, when the voice of the cursed monk resounded.

"Lord Sesshomaru will take her in. He must, he is the Great Dog General now, and as such it is his responsibility to house orphaned dog demons, no matter their status or birth. If Lady Kagome travels to his court and asks for protection and housing, along with training, he is obligated to give it, according to his title." Miroku's face held confidence, the information having been passed down from teacher to student for many centuries, and knew they had saved their dear comrade's life. True, Kikyo could still shoot her, but she no longer had an excuse, and risked being truly killed herself for it. It was a gamble he was sure she wouldn't take, dead or not.

Very briefly anger and hatred shown in her eyes as she realized she had been outmatched; she would have to let the girl go, this time. Lowering her weapon, she gazed back at the girl she hated and gave her a cold look. "You are saved for now. I suggest you go, now, before you do something else that I am forced to kill you for. I am certain you will die before long, and I am a patient being when need be." This time she turned completely to the half dog, and made sure he followed her. It would not do for her to be killed while weakened by the stupid girl's curse, and having put a slight spell on him to keep him quiet the remainder of the fight had taken a larger chunk of her reserve than she was comfortable. Stupid bastard really couldn't keep out of a good fight.

Those left watched the tragic couple leave, and kept staring long after they had disappeared from view, each being afraid to finally break the silence. Kagome, however, had decided that words weren't needed right now. It would hurt too much, and their fear would keep them from allowing even a hug, so instead she turned around and ran back to Kaede's. Luck was on her side as she didn't trip once, or perhaps it was simply because she wasn't thinking as usual. Either way, she was glad for it, and grabbed two packs she had already pre-packed for an event like this. The weight was nothing, and soon she was running through the forest in the direction of Sesshomaru's land. She didn't know what to expect, but hoped her mind would continue to be blank long enough for her to reach safety. Returning to powerlessness wasn't appealing, and she wanted to hold off the tears long enough for them to hopefully dry. Poor girl never knew what she would be getting herself into.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to give a big heartfelt thanks to all the readers who have favorited/followed/commented on this story. It truly warms my heart, and keeps my fire burning to do the best I can with this story. Also, a quick apology for the time delay, but I believe I said before I have no computer of my own. I use one when and where I can, so please don't give up on me! You all mean so much to me, and my only hope is to write a story that you will enjoy. Thank you again.
> 
> ~Ana


	7. Chapter Six

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A.N
> 
> Sorry for the long wait, but here's the next installment. Really quick before I get to the story I would like to give a huge thanks to DemonQueen17, Sugar0o, and WiccanMethuselah. These amazing individuals found out someone on dokuga had taken my one-shot and posted it as their own work. These three not only warned me, but once it was confirmed that my work had been stolen, they immediately got to work on deleting that person's account and keeping my work my own. This chapter and the next are both dedicated to them. Enjoy!
> 
> ~Ana

"Kuku kuku."

The slightly maniacal laugh echoed throughout the room, and made the occupants wince from the zing of fear that it made run through them. Though Naraku could sense the fear in them, he didn't spare but a fleeting thought, the sense of victory taking over his mind. Even before he had taken over the fool known as Onigumo, Naraku had thought himself supreme. There was a phrase the pathetic humans used that he had come to like, 'A frog under the gaze of a snake.' Indeed, the evil being was the snake, and the rest of the world was the frog. All would come to be under his rule, controlled by their fear of him, and he could do anything he wanted.

What he wanted now, however, was to go after the now demon priestess and dispose of her. The half demon had been watching her since the witch had come to warn him about her impending curse, and had waited for the perfect time to act. Killing her now would not only destroy the wills of her group, but since she was in Lord Sesshomaru's lands, it would be a stain upon his honor. Finally there would be proof that not even the killing perfection could stop Naraku, and after that, chaos would reign. Chaos, fear, panic; these were all things he could control.

Sadly, his wind witch couldn't be used for this mission since she would use every possible moment to defy him, so he decided to send a puppet instead. The path in which she was heading would lead her straight to the village her group had fought in just before she changed, and would be a lovely place to end her existence. When she reached the village, her pathetic little life would be forfeit.

OoO

There were things in this world that couldn't be avoided, Kagome knew that, but she'd never really thought Naraku would be included in that rule. Sure, he watched her pack like a depraved bully waiting for a geek to pass through the halls, but for some reason she'd just assumed that it would be Inuyasha to receive that bad luck, not herself. Of course, then she had to think back on all her bad luck and wonder what on Earth gave her the idea she could avoid the evil half demon's gaze. More and more it seemed as if the Gods were playing around with her out of boredom, for she couldn't imagine any other reason for all her suffering, not when she was alone in an unfamiliar land facing down the most vile creature to exist.

"Don't look so surprised kitten. Or are you? Now that you're a demon, it remains to be seen whether or not you'll turn into an actual type, or just stay at the lower levels. My bet, with one as weak as yourself, is that you won't ever evolve. Just like when you were human."

Anger started building in her, fueled by her beast, and as the horrid spider laughed, she bared her fangs on a growl, fully intending on ripping a hole straight through his stomach. Before she even managed to think about taking a step forward, however, tentacles spurted from his back and shot through her arms and legs. Palms, elbows, shoulders then feet, knees and hips, she was truly incapacitated.

"What the hell do you want from me you sick bastard?!"

He didn't answer at first, opting instead for walking around to examine her, running his claws along whatever skin he could reach, making sure to draw blood. Unfortunately, Naraku seemed to know there was a struggle going on within the former priestess, and goaded her beast as much as he could, leaving only enough slack so Kagome could keep it from over taking her. The saving grace? He didn't yet know she really did have a beast.

"Kukukuku. Poor little monster. How does it feel to be despised by every creature in Japan? Surely you've noticed? You aren't human enough to be trusted, but you aren't demon enough to be accepted either, even half breeds are treated better than you. Marvelous turn of events however, I thought I'd have to work much harder to get Inuyasha to turn his back on you. If I had known this was all it would take, I would've had someone do this much sooner."

His glee was punctuated by the growth and writhing of his disgusting appendages as he slowly made his way back into her line of vision. As the space between the two lessened, the filthy, baboon pelt fell away, revealing a smirking red-eyed man. With the increased sense of smell she had, Kagome was able to tell the thing in front of her was, in fact, not the real Naraku. That, combined with the new 'gag' (yet another tentacle), made her beast thrash against the mental cage she was in.

Out! Out! OUT! We must kill enemy! Let me out to save us!

The struggle was taking up a great deal of her energy, and fast. She had to close her eyes just to keep the spider demon from seeing her now-red eyes. There was only one possibility out of this, and that would be to dispose of the puppet. For that, she would need the advantage his ignorance held, even if he mistook what she did as a sign of despair.

"You know, all these years I've tried time after time to kill you. Each and every time, I have failed. And now, the one time I didn't set anything up, I have been given the perfect circumstance possible in which to kill you. Here you are, alone, having given up, abandoned by your whole pack, even though they haven't yet gotten over you, so your death will still kill them inside. Not only that, but you're on Sesshomaru's lands, which will allow me to finally stain his honor, and bring doubt to his people. Imagine, everyone bowing to me, having finally realized no one, not even the death God himself, can beat me. It will be a glorious day indeed. You just won't be there to witness it. More's the pity."

Kagome could sense the maniacal smile on his face; hear the shifting of his arm as he pulled it back. She knew what he was going to do, put it straight through her stomach, maybe her heart, and since she was dangling in the air by his tentacles, she had no choice but to let him. Only with his hand in her stomach would she be able to have enough time and leverage to release her beast and attempt to kill the insect. Unsure whether or not it was a viable plan, she was reassured by the deadly purr that came from her beast.

The moment came all too soon, and she was lucky he was so twisted for he avoided all major organs. He wanted her to bleed out, slowly and painfully. And it was definitely painful, he moved around as much as possible so that he could tear as much of her intestines as he could. Her scream, though muffled, was still loud enough to echo around the area they inhabited, and only intensified when he tore through the skin of her back. She so badly wanted to fall into the dark abyss that threatened to swallow her whole, but her beast wouldn't allow it, and after some goading, she finally let her beast take control.

OoO

"Lord Sesshomaru! My Lord! Lord Sesshomaru!"

The infernal screeching could be heard throughout the citadel, and made all the inhabitants wince. Devoted though they were to their Lord, none could understand the need for the annoying toad. He ran down the halls until he was standing in front of his Lord's office door and waited impatiently to be allowed entry.

Lord Sesshomaru, however, waited as long as possible before calling him in, deciding the imp could use it. For the first time in all the years Jaken had served as his retainer, the servant didn't wait, he slammed open the door and threw himself at the bottom of his desk.

"Please forgive me my Lord, but I have just gotten word from a sentry that was patrolling near the prisoner encampment. He said that he heard an altercation take place, and when he went to investigate, he found a dog demoness attempting to fight what looked like the half demon Naraku!"

Sesshomaru immediately stood and started walking towards the front of the castle, adding an order for Jaken to protect Rin before he was completely out of earshot. True, the vermin known as Naraku had been getting more and more impudent as of late, but for him to have the audacity to not only attack one of his kind, but on his lands no less… This mistake would be repaired.

Transforming into his light ball, he was there in a few moments, and the sight that met his eyes surprised him for a moment. In the middle of the former village was a transformed dog demoness tearing through the tentacles that had torn through her body.


	8. Chapter Seven

Vaguely, in the very back of her mind, she sensed someone was repeatedly slapping her, but it was something she was having problems focusing on. In her mind’s eye, she was still locked in battle with Naraku, losing control of her beast, waiting for the demon she somehow knew was on his way. Reality, it seemed, was not quite so dramatic or farfetched. Sluggishly, as if swimming through molasses, her mind pushed away the fight and let her grasp onto the feel of the real world. First her toes, then feet, up her legs to her belly; it was almost like having had her whole body fall asleep and needing to force it all awake again. When finally her arms were under her control again, she reached up to stop the infernal slapping.  
Inuyasha sat on his haunches as Kagome held his arm, waiting with bated breath to see if she would finally come back to herself. She was freaking them all out, sitting there, unresponsive, staring at something none of the rest of them could see. Everyone gave a sigh of relief when they saw her eyes focus on the half demon. It was just his luck that she would be looking at him with a glare and not appreciation.  
“Sit!”  
Sango, being the first to recover, started to snicker.  
“I told you not to slap her. You know it never turns out good for you.”  
“Feh.”  
It was right around this time Lady Kaede came back into the hut, apparently finished with her tasks for the day. She settled next to the young girl and looked at her speculatively.  
“So child, ye are awake. Do ye recall what happened?”  
That sobered the group up quickly, and they all turned to Kagome with expectant looks.  
“U-uh… Well, you see…”  
And she told them what she could remember, making sure to gloss over the parts that were sure to start a fight. At the end of her tale, the only ones who looked as if they even believed what she had seen were the monk and priestess, which annoyed her.  
“You guys don’t believe me.”  
Inuyasha burst out laughing, and got a haughty look on his face as he pointed a finger at her.  
“Of course not! You, a full demon? HA! And I’m in love with Kagura. You’re just trying to get attention after your last failure. Even being a full demon wouldn’t help you be better than Kikyo.”  
Sango gave him a brief glare, but turned to answer her sister before a fight started.  
“It’s not that I don’t believe you… I believe you imagined it. But as for it actually happening? I mean, don’t you think it’s a little far-fetched?”  
Shippo peaked from behind Sango’s shoulder to put in his opinion as well.  
“Yeah mama. I love you, and I think it would be nice if you became a full demon – then you’d never leave me! – but I don’t know what we’re supposed to think about it. I mean, it didn’t happen, because you’re still human.”  
During this Miroku and Kaede had been quietly talking to each other, and after agreeing on something they called everyone’s attention back to them.  
“We believe,’ Began the monk, ‘that Lady Kagome did in fact really experience what she saw.”  
Lady Kaede took over from here.  
“Ye see, centuries ago priestesses use to also be oracles. Visions were a part of everyday life back then, and their fellow humans began to worship them as Gods. This angered the real Gods, and in their anger, they took the gift away. Though I had heard that one of the last visions foretold of a priestess so strong the Gods would smile upon her and give their gifts once again.”  
Just as Inuyasha was about to burst, a quiet voice spoke up.  
“So you’re saying that what I saw is the future?”  
It was Miroku who answered.  
“If you can’t change the course of events… Yes.”  
And the half demon lost it.


	9. Chapter Eight

Three days later  
The group had decided to travel to Sesshomaru’s caves after almost five hours debating. It had been agreed, once they calmed the raging half demon down, that their priority needed to be preventing the curse. Without the knowledge on how the curse was put together, there wasn’t any point going after Tsubaki’s sister. For all they knew, they would just speed up the process. Instead, they would try to gain access the great Western Lord’s library; it was said any cure for any illness had a scroll in the west’s library.  
Of course, Inuyasha was completely against it, and spent all his time huffing about. It was grating on everyone’s nerves, but they put up with it, reminding themselves how painful it must be to know that your one dream would be given to someone else who didn’t even want it. Not that it helped much, as he still managed to get him ‘sat’ and knocked out; then again, he wasn’t dead.  
Worry accumulated each day that passed by without any trace of Sesshomaru, and it seemed as if they would either have to wait by the border, or pass on and hope the Lord would take mercy. The mood was tense and stressful, making the hair on everyone’s necks stand on end. So far the most anyone had talked about was the plan to take a slight detour and try to prevent the massacre of the village they had taken the jewel shard from. The scene would never be erased from Kagome’s memory, but she would do everything she could to prevent it from coming about, and never have her dear little kit see such atrocity.  
That evening, as everyone was sitting around the campfire after dinner, the priestess decided to go take a bath, hoping the waters would soothe a bit of the tension from her shoulders. She wasn’t surprised when the slayer came with her, it was their ritual after all, and had a fun time laughing and having fun. Too soon though, her sister wanted to leave, worried too much water would be bad for her health, and instead of go with her, she chose instead to stay in. The older woman gave in without too much fight, which was a relief to Kagome. It had been far too long since she had had time to herself here.  
Her thoughts, as she rested against a rock, drifted to her vision. A secret that she would never admit aloud was that a part of her wanted to become demon. It wasn’t to spite Inuyasha, she would never want to betray him, but for the first time in her life, she had felt powerful. No matter how strong Kikyo was, she couldn’t have beaten the young girl’s demon form. Plus, she was actually beautiful. Never had she had a reason to consider herself as such, but seeing everything from a third person perspective had given her a look at herself she had never seen before, and she could say that, for a fact, she was breath-taking as a demon.  
Leaning over slightly, she looked at her reflection with a clinical eye. Because of Inuyasha, she had always believed she was unattractive, but she was starting to realize his words were mostly said out of a misplaced sense of duty. Duty to the woman he hadn’t been able to save to save her honor and status in any way he could. She could see all the similarities between the two, but she could also start seeing the differences. Her eyes were a piercing blue instead of brown, her nose a bit more slender, lips more full, hair more wavy. These little things that had bothered her for so long, had made her feel inferior, were starting to seem like blessings. They are what made her KAGOME, not just some copy of a long dead woman.  
A sigh escaped her lips as she leaned back again. It was hard not to be influenced by her vision, since it had seemed as though she had lived it all. The power was gone, her beast was gone, her pack was back, but everything else felt the same. Perhaps she could talk Sango or Miroku into teaching her how to fight; she might not be a demon, but she didn’t need to be completely helpless either. Even Midoriko became a swordsman, and that was something completely unheard of before her. Then she could train with Miroku and Lady Kaede in order to strengthen her control over her priestess powers. Nodding to herself, she decided it was a good idea, and she would talk about it once she got back to camp.  
Her thoughts slowly went back to the differences between Kikyo and herself. True, she didn’t know much about things pertaining to priestesses, but she wasn’t stupid. She knew math, science, history, reading, writing, calligraphy, and dancing (thanks to her mother when she was a child). Hell, she could even successfully complete a traditional tea ceremony, and because of the chess club she had entered when she was younger, she was fairly certain she could do a decent job as an army general. So she didn’t know how to use her powers very well, or shoot a bow and arrow (which she was getting much better in), and didn’t dress in the traditional garb of this time. This WASN’T her time, so why had she always let Inuyasha make her feel guilty for her differences?  
If it weren’t for her, he would still be stuck to a tree, Kikyo would still be dead, neither would know that they hadn’t truly betrayed each other, and Naraku would still be running around free. Not to mention even if the half demon somehow got free, he never would have gotten his father’s sword, Sesshomaru figuring things out or no. No, it was due to her he was free, knew the truth, wasn’t alone, and had one of the strongest swords to ever exist. Plus it was half of HER soul that was keeping his old love alive. He never even would have known the taste of Ramen if it weren’t for her!  
More and more she realized what had always been right in front of her: the truth. It made her angry that someone would be so decidedly cruel and make someone believe all Inuyasha had made her believe. By the time she made it back to camp, her blood was boiling.  
‘How DARE he?!’  
The group tensed as Kagome entered, they could tell all was not well, and since the half demon was nearly always the cause of her changes in mood, they waited with bated breath for it to come to a head. It didn’t take long.  
“Oi! What the hell is your problem wench?”  
That was all it took. With a growl to rival that of a demon’s, the priestess spun around and punched him.  
“Sit! Sit sit sit! You IDIOT! What’s wrong? What’s WRONG? Oh, I don’t know. I’m just facing probably losing my humanity because a certain dog won’t stop throwing a temper tantrum long enough to let us do anything productive! If it weren’t for you, we would have gotten here a day ago! Maybe even less!”  
By that time, the spell had worn off, and Inuyasha jumped up and into her face growling menacingly.  
“We wouldn’t even be in this mess if it weren’t for you! If it were Kikyo…”  
“Sit! That’s what I’m talking about! Ugh! Kikyo this, Kikyo that. Kikyo’s better at everything than you. Blah blah blah. I’ve hear it all before. And for your information, you’re wrong. She might be a better priestess than I am, but I’m WAY smarter than she is. You know what? While we’re on this subject, why don’t we talk about why, exactly Kikyo’s a better priestess?”  
The silver haired boy tried to get out, but the girl was waiting for it and just renewed the spell, not willing to be interrupted this time.  
“Oh no, you’re not going to stop be Inuyasha, not this time. I have dealt with your abuse long enough, and I’m not taking it anymore! Ever since I got here, you’ve been ordering me around, hardly letting me get any rest, not to mention trying everything you could think of to get me to stay here. And when I AM here, all you try to do is make me feel inferior to Kikyo. It’s YOUR fault I’m not better with my powers anyway, so where do you get off? Sit! If you had just let me stay with Kaede from time to time, or let us get some extra rest when traveling, I could’ve been learning how to be a proper priestess. But no, not you, you just couldn’t stand the thought of someone else having power. Sit! In my time demons don’t exist! So holy powers are very rare, and when they do come about, the people who have them have no need of being trained. Why should they? They have nothing to fight. And so when you find this out, instead of helping me get the training I needed, you keep me weak, then condemn me for it! How is that even fair?! Sit! I’m tired of it! I won’t put up with it anymore! I am not Kikyo, and it’s a GOOD thing! If I was her, I would’ve died right away! You keep trying to make me feel inferior, but the plain and simple truth of it, it Kikyo failed. That’s why I’m here! Sit! She would still be dead if it weren’t for the half of my soul she has, and instead of being thankful, you treat me like it’s my fault she died in the first place! I wasn’t the idiot who fell for the tricks of an evil half demon! I didn’t get myself killed because I was being selfish! I AM NOT KIKYO!”


	10. Chapter Nine

The camp was quiet and tense after the little priestess had her say. Shippo was the only one sleeping, and that was only because he was far too tired to stay awake any longer. After declaring her difference, Inuyasha had jumped out of the crater he was in near to losing control of his demon blood; he started yelling right away, and after barely a second or two of it, Kagome  sat him so many times he lost consciousness. Of course, he did wake up, but instead of starting the fight again, as everyone expected, he sent a vicious glare towards the girl and ran off into the night. Said girl had been staring into the fire ever since, and the other two had no idea what was on her mind.

_‘Perhaps, if I have my whole soul, I’ll be able to fight the curse? After all, it’s too strong and large for Kanna to suck into her mirror, maybe the same is true for people trying to curse me. Wouldn’t they have to essentially contain my soul in order to harm the entirety of it? But… I don’t want to kill Kikyo, not for such a selfish reason. Then again, if what I saw really_ WAS _the truth, she’s more of a danger alive than dead. Would it be a sin to take back my soul if it’s keeping someone else alive? And even more frightening, would I take on all the sins she’s accumulated in this pseudo life of hers?_

_‘Is it even worth the risk on the off chance it_ MIGHT _work? What if I take her soul and I become tainted? I’ll be of even less worth than I am now. Or I could take it, but be cursed anyways; then I’ll be a new demon, and susceptible to the powers of the jewel. Not only that, but even if I managed to ignore it, all the shards would have to be held by Miroku, and taken to Kaede for purification. She would do it, but the time it would take to constantly have to do it, not to mention the amount of danger we would add to what the village already has… We shouldn’t. What would be the point of taking my soul back anyhow? Inuyasha would lose his mind, and that would give Naraku ammo and an even greater upper hand. No, I suppose I shouldn’t, even if it_ DOES _get me turned into a demon.’_

By the time she made up her mind, dawn was close, and the monk and slayer were getting breakfast ready. In her mind Kagome decided they would all start walking again after the camp was packed up, with or without the half demon. Something in her gut turned thinking of where he could have gone.

_‘I don’t have a good feeling about this.’_

It was just after eating, while they were finishing the packing, that she knew the reason for the bad feeling.

“Oi! Everyone listen up! I’m bringing Kikyo along with us. From now on, she’s gonna be a member of this pack, so everyone better treat her with respect. And that goes for you too Ka-go-me.”

There were several beats of silence as everyone waited to see what would happen next. For a few moments, Kagome just stood there, taking the two in and right before Inuyasha opened his mouth again, she finally gave her opinion.

“No.”

Or perhaps order would be a better word. That simple two letter word was all it took to send the half demon off the deep end.

“What the hell do you mean no?! Who do you think you are? I’m the alpha! What I say goes, and I say Kikyo’s a part of this pack now!”

Unfortunately for him, Kagome had no interest in fighting with him again, she was just done. She was still trying to juggle the vision and reality, but one thing she knew was that there was nothing he could do or say that would make her travel with the woman who had been the cause of so much destruction in her life.

“You know what Inuyasha? I really don’t care what kind of power you think you have over me. Just because I choose to let you lead this group, it doesn’t mean you have any sort of power over me. In fact, last time I recall, I was the one who made all the big decisions, not you. Still, I’m not going to force anyone here into doing what they don’t want to do. So how about this? You want to be with your _dear_ Kikyo so much? Fine, be with her. You two can go to the village that’s going to be the target of the man with the jewel. I however, am going straight to Sesshomaru’s caves. I’ll stay there for either however long I need to, or how long he allows me to, whichever comes first. The rest of you can go wherever you want, and if you choose Inuyasha, I won’t care at all. It won’t be a betrayal.”

Her former love started sputtering, trying and failing to find something – anything – to say, and it just made her smirk. Ever since her vision, it was almost like she was a different person, but she was coming to like the new her more and more. Throwing a ‘sit’ over her shoulder, she grabbed her pack and left, heading towards the west once more.


	11. Chapter Ten

As it turned out, the only one who wasn’t confused on who to travel with ended up being Shippo. For Sango and Miroku, it was a bit more difficult. They both loved Kagome like a sister, and wanted to protect her, but at the same time, they needed to find the jewel shards and defeat Naraku as soon as possible, just for different reasons. After a quick, silent conversation between them, it was decided that Sango would go with Kagome, and Miroku would take Kilala and go with Inuyasha.

After about an hour or two of walking, Sango finally decided to confront the younger girl.

“Ne, Kagome?”

“Mmm?”

“What’s going on?”

The priestess sighed, and decided to call a break, walking over to a glade she saw through the trees. Once Shippo was a safe distance off playing, she answered the demon slayer.

“You’ve noticed it too then?”

“Of course I noticed! Ever since you had that vision, you’ve been acting differently.”

Kagome nodded her head, not at all surprised the woman she looked to as a sibling noticed.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make it seem like I was intentionally leaving you out of my thoughts. It’s just that with Inuyasha there, I had to watch what I said.”

For the rest of the day, Sango was told all the details of what the young girl had seen, with nothing left out. It wasn’t until they set up for dinner that the tale was over, and she could ask questions.

“So you mean to say you have no idea if what you went through in the vision is a part of you now?”

Sporadic nodding was her answer.

“Then why don’t we figure it out? I have an extra sword in my pack, you have your bow and arrows, so we can set up a target, and Shippo can quiz you on what proper demon etiquette is. If you can do everything you learned in your vision, than we can assume that the vision was just like reality for you. What do you think?”

Kagome took a few moments to think about what she proposed, then shook her head in the affirmative.

“Yeah, sounds like a plan! I’ll never know otherwise!”

So, once they finished dinner, and had the camp all set up, the two women started to spar. At first, the younger girl’s body didn’t want to cooperate, and her movements were jerky and unsure, but after about a half hour, her movements became more fluid. She found that all the things that had become second nature to her were coming back; she didn’t move unless she had to, her breathing evened out, and she didn’t go for the obvious moved any longer, instead choosing to go the route least expected.

It was amazing to Sango; just this morning her sister was as helpless as a fly, and now that very same girl had beaten her over half a dozen times!

“Okay okay, enough. I’m tired, sore, and all I want to do is lay down and sleep. Besides, I think we can all agree on who the victor here was.”

OoO

The next morning, Shippo took his turn at testing Kagome. For the first part of the day the kit asked his mama all sorts of question about foxes and what different meanings their actions held. It wasn’t until they got to dogs and proper etiquette with them that they started running into a problem.

“Mama! It’s just a question! There’s nothing you need to blush about. Besides, if you don’t answer, how am I supposed to know if you remember everything or not?”

She threw her face in her hands and shook her head.

“No! Look, I know you’re just asking the questions you feel you need to, but I’ve gotten everything right up to know, so why don’t we just assume I remember everything and go on?”

Throwing an exasperated look at his adopted mother, the young fox gave up and ran off to play with a butterfly that was flying by.

“Kagome, I don’t understand, why couldn’t you just answer the question?”

Her face still stained red, priestess looked at slayer and groaned.

“He asked me how you can show interest and submission with dogs!”

“Yeah, and?”

“It’s through touching ears or tails. Both of which I’ve done!”

Sango gave her a confused look.

“I know you use to touch Inuyasha’s ears, but when have you ever touched a dog demon’s tail?”

Kagome’s face just got more and more red until she blurted out the answer.

“I touched Sesshomaru’s tail!”

It just so happened to be at that exact moment the demon mentioned showed up before them. And even though they had been waiting for him so they could safely enter his lands, and hopefully get permission to enter his caves, the priestess wanted nothing more than to die at that moment. Her mortification only got worse with his next words.

“Wench, you will stop spreading lies about this Sesshomaru.”


	12. Chapter Eleven

The pain of losing half your soul is unbearable. There were nights when the only reason Kagome had insisted on traveling back to her time was so she could sit on the bottom of the well and scream out the pain. It was lucky for her that most of her traveling companions were heavy sleepers, since she would wake up to the mind numbing pain screaming loud enough to make her throat bleed. The only one who knew was Miroku, but she was able to trust him; it was in each other they were finally able to share their deepest pains, fears, and sorrows.  
Once the priestess told him about the pain she went through, and how it affected her life, he told her about the pain he felt with the wind tunnel in his hand, something she had never considered before. Her heart squeezed when he told her of a pain that rivaled her own, and that night she clung to him, apologizing and crying over and over. When the others woke up and found the two in each other’s arms, it was a scandal, but they eventually managed to get them to believe nothing nefarious had happened without giving away the truth of their problems.  
Ever since, the two took to helping and covering for each other when the pain became too much. At first, Kagome would just bite into Miroku’s shoulder when she awoke screaming, but after she accidentally bit through his shoulder one night, they instead chose to find another way. The priestess went back to her time and found a tea that would allow them to sleep all night without pain. After some experimenting, they found they could take a smaller amount during the day that would keep the pain away, but let them stay awake. Suspicion followed the group for a few weeks before they finally accepted it and let life return to normal.  
Miroku was sitting against a tree petting Kilala the first night after the group split up, thinking about the difference between his traveling companions. He was surprised to see he missed his holy partner as much as he did. True, he loved Sango dearly, nut there were just some things he couldn’t tell her. Aside from that, he wanted to talk to Kagome about what was going on with her. In all honesty, it was beginning to worry him, for while she had gone through times of being lost, he had never noticed such a detached look from her before. Like she didn’t even connect with the person she was anymore. Unfortunately, his answers were going to have to wait since he was now stuck with the two people who had made Kagome’s life so hellish since arriving here.  
Being a monk, he was use to knowing how to interact with people, but so far on this trip it seemed his powers only extended as far as living beings. Any conversation he attempted to start with the dead priestess was met with either silence or one-worded answers. After a few attempts, he just gave up, much preferring the company of her reincarnation. Sadly, he made the mistake of voicing his opinion, and Inuyasha very nearly ripped his throat out. Might have too, if not for the silent but firm hand of the dead woman now constantly at his side.  
Ever since, her chose to just be silent, and spend his time thinking of a course of action. Their only clear goal was the retrieval of the jewel shard, and seeing if they could obtain any information on Naraku, as well as get Lord Sesshomaru to give them permission to enter his land. That last goal was something Miroku had a sneaking suspicion only he cared about, but of the three of them, he was also most likely the only one who acknowledged the demon lord had more than sufficient power to decimate them all if he so chose. Who knew? Maybe this trip would be good for them all.  
Sesshomaru was desperately needed by their side, and they had yet to win him over. Having Kagome go meet him without Inuyasha might just get them the outcome they needed. This was, after all, the very same girl who talked the most fearsome wolf demon tribe out of eating humans. A feat never before accomplished. Yes, a great many hopes and dreams rested on the shoulders of the futuristic priestess, but Miroku had a feeling she would be able to handle it. One doesn’t get chosen by the Gods if they aren’t able to undertake their chosen task after all.  
OoO  
Most people saw Inuyasha as being insufferable, arrogant, and stupid. Most people didn’t see the real him. The truth was, inside, the half demon was still but a pup, never having felt the warmth of a father, and losing his mother before he was even a teen. Everyone always hated him for what he was, condemning him for a decision his parents made. No place he went would accept him; too human for demons, too demon for humans. He grew up hating everyone simply because they hated him. It was a vicious cycle that never ended until the day he met Kikyo.  
She was beautiful, powerful, kind, and most of all, she didn’t condemn him for his heritage. At first, it was just friendship and company that he craved, a warm body next to his, a caring heart to unload his troubles to. Soon, it wasn’t enough; he wanted her attention, her love, her future. And so he did everything he could in order to get her to see him, to fall in love with him, and it worked. The only problem came when she told him her stipulation was he had to become a human. When he heard that, it wasn’t only the human half of his heart that cried, but what could he do? No one would ever care for him again, and if he became a human, everyone would accept him, he wouldn’t have to worry about being hated for what he was.  
The day soon came when he was to wish on the jewel, and even though his heart was still crying at the thought of the one he loved not accepting him, he pushed through to have his happy ever after. Only it never came. Instead she tried to kill him, and in that moment, all the hurt and pain she had already caused bubbled up and boiled over into anger. He went to try and take the jewel, intending to get his revenge by wishing for the exact opposite she had wanted, but it was not to be. Now injured, Kikyo showed up and stopped him, sealing him to a tree, and for a long time, that was all he knew.  
Another thing people always got wrong was the assumption he had peacefully slept during his imprisonment on the tree, the truth was far, far uglier. Time meant nothing, had no passing, and he was a slave to the torture his mind deigned to put him through. Every horrid word, every ugly glance, every cruel treatment he and his mother went through, it was all replayed. And each and every time those moments replayed in his mind, his demon blood whispered more evil and disturbing things.  
Perhaps it was a good thing he was sealed, for if he was free, oh but if he was free! He could bring pain and suffering, revenge and punishment. New rules would be implemented, and he, oh the beauty of it all! Inuyasha, the half-blood prince, he would be the master to all humans. The ones who had mocked and scorned him before would be forced to kneel and pray. He would be a God to these worthless creatures, and they would be but worms for him to toy with as he pleased.  
It was to these thoughts the half demon awoke to who he thought was the woman he had loved, who had betrayed him. No one would know the magnitude to which being sealed had scarred him, the extent to which his soul was tarnished. And because no one had truly tried to purify him, they had no way of knowing it would most likely work because his soul was so tarnished. True, he was a master at making others think he was pure, or at least not already bound for hell, and there were times he even tricked himself, but the truth was ugly.  
Because, as it has already been stated, no one saw the real Inuyasha.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A.N. - Please forgive me, but I just couldn't resist using Harry Potter in here a bit. I always thought there were more than a few things in common between the two.  
> ~Ana


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